Colombia authorized, for the first time in the country’s history, the euthanasia of a patient diagnosed with a disease without a terminal condition. Martha Sepúlveda, 51, has suffered from amyotrophic lateral sclerosis for three years and experiences severe pain and difficulty walking.
She will go through the procedure that will end her life next Sunday, October 10, at 7 am.
“I’ve been calmer since the procedure was authorized. I smile more and sleep more peacefully,” stated Martha in an interview with Colombian broadcaster Caracol.
Martha said that, although she is Catholic, she is calm and does not regret having made this decision, and that she does not see it as a sin to have chosen death. “I consider myself very much a believer in God. But God doesn’t want to see me suffering, and I don’t believe anyone. What father wants to see his children suffering?” he said in the interview.
Euthanasia has been legal in Colombia since 1997, but the procedure was regulated in 2015, when hospitals began performing assisted suicide in the country. Since then, 157 people have undergone the procedure, which is performed with a lethal injection, 26 of them in the year 2021, according to El Comercio.
But they were all terminally ill patients. Martha Sepúlveda, who lives in Medellín, will be the first Colombian person to undergo euthanasia without this framework.
The Constitutional Court of Colombia (equivalent to the Supreme Court), on July 23, extended the right to patients who suffer from a disease that causes intense suffering due to bodily injury or serious incurable illness, and who can offer their free and informed consent. With this decision, the Court modified an article of the penal code that treated homicide for pity or euthanasia as a crime.
Four days later, Martha asked for authorization for the procedure, and the request was approved.
Martha’s son and 11 siblings initially didn’t agree on the plan, but they also don’t want to see her suffer. “A priori, I need my mother, I want her with me, almost in any condition, but I know that in her words she doesn’t live anymore, she just survives,” his son, Federico Redondo, told Caracol. “I’m basically focused on making her laugh and making her stay on Earth a little more enjoyable.”
source https://pledgetimes.com/colombia-authorizes-euthanasia-of-terminally-ill-women-without-illness/
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